fileformatsfandomcom-20200215-history
Microsoft ACME Setup
'''Microsoft ACME Setup '''is the name of the software installation tool that was used with some of the first versions of Microsoft software, including Microsoft Office (until Office 2000, which uses Windows Installer), Microsoft Visual Studio 6.0, and other similar products. It has been superseded by the Windows Installer platform. It uses a text-based file format ending in .STF (examples include acmsetup.stf, setup.stf) to store setup commands. It also requires the files "SETUP.TDF" and "SETUP.INF" (help: purpose unknown?) in order to run. Alongside the ACME setup program, there is usually also a bootstrapper program included. While the ACME setup executable is usually named ACMSETUP.EXE, the bootstrapper program is usually called SETUP.EXE and is featured alongside a plain-text SETUP.LST file which tells the bootstrapper which files to copy to a temporary directory before launching the installation. Setup table file (STF) format The basic file format is simply a series of tab-delimited data; importing it into a spreadsheet program like LibreOffice Calc and specifying the tab character as the delimiter should make the content more readable. Like the Windows INI format, the STF format can be thought of as having properties (but not groups). Observed properties are described below. If you observe a property not listed here, please add it to the list even if you don't know what it does; someone might see it and figure it out. Header A series of properties and their respective values comes first. Object list The object list is actually a rather large text-based list of commands. It starts with a tab-delimited line describing each of the values, and then treats each following line as a command. The list of commands are defined below. An example object list in a SETUP.STF file might look like this: ObjID Install During Batch Mode Title Descr Type Data BMP Id Vital Shared Dir Chang Dest Dir Check Dir Installed By Us 1 Microsoft Office Professional Microsoft Office Professional AppSearch """%p\MSOffice""<%p\Microsoft Office>, , ,176,,yes,4 5" 2 AppSearch "c:\MSOffice, , ,176,,yes,4 5" 3 Microsoft Office Professional CustomAction "setupres.dll, AddAppSrch, ""Not Required, c:\MSOffice, MSOFFICE.EXE, 95.02.03.2, 4"" " 4 SearchReg "CLASSES, MSToolbar\MSOffice" Setup bootstrapper (LST) format The file format is based off of the Windows INI format, so that will not be re-documented here. Instead, the groups and properties specific to the LST format will be listed. There are two main groups: the Params group and the Files group. Params group This group has been observed as "Windows 95 Params" and "NT3.51 Intel Params", although more variations likely exist. The properties in this group are the same no matter what the group name is, as long as it ends in "Params". Files group This group has been observed as "Windows 95 Files" and "NT3.51 Intel Files", although more variations likely exist. The properties in this group aren't really properties; they are mappings between the source file name and the destination file name. For example, if your source media has a folder called SOURCE and one of the files that would be copied is called COPYME, your SETUP.LST file might look somewhat like this: 95 Files SOURCE\COPYME = COPYME Category:Setup programs